Posted 14 December 2009 - 01:44 PM

I've been pretty lucky. So far I've only had one software conflict, and I think that is to do with this particular software's incompatibility with Snow Leopard.

I'm using a plugin called Liquid Mix HD. Which ever version of this plugin I load first (There are stereo and mono versions) prevents the other version from loading up. I get both a DAE error and a fatal error warning. Very strange, but I've noticed on focusrite's site that they don't list Liquid Mix HD among the plugins that have been tested with Snow Leopard.

I wrote them an email to see if they can suggest anything as a work around. Of course I can just use routing to get around the problem myself anyway.

Update: I got a reply from focusrite and they say that they will not test for Snow Leopard compatibility until digi release it's official version of 8.0.3, which has now happened.

Still waiting for Focusrite.......... For now, I'm just deciding which version I'll use in each session, since I love this plug!!!

Everything works correctly, iLok stuff, ethernet, onboard audio ( not that I really care .. ). All my plugins work with the exception of versions I had that were not intel compatible.

I will probably try bumping up to Snow Leopard once I feel like there is a really solid version of PT8 that is compatible.

One problem you might encounter is that using 3 full size cards is a problem on just about any board. On my board I had to remove and cut down one of the chipset heatsinks a bit to make room for the card. Something else to consider if you happen to be moving over from a G5 is that you will need a pretty large case, again because the cards are big.

Posted 24 December 2009 - 05:50 PM

PC

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I'm trying to get my Pro Tools LE system to work with a setup from the lifehacker article. Snow Leopard is running great but I couldn't get a PT install to work at all (my mbox 2 wouldn't light up) until the latest 8.0.3 release. Now it installs fine, starts fine, but I get a "Could not allocate space for recording!" message when I try to record a track.

I've gone through the Digi Troubleshooting guide and searched around on their web site but no luck. I tried all this stuff for trashing preferences and digi databases then re-installed PT. In the workspace I verified that the disk I'm trying to record to is set to "R" for both modes (tho I don't have video). I'm tempted to re-install Snow Leopard but I can't think of a reason that would help.

Posted 25 December 2009 - 12:24 PM

Noizyboy

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Update: Now on 10.6.2 running with Pro Tools HD 8.0.3 (Official release). I'm using a Magma PCI chassis (the one with the pericom chip. There are two. One 7 slot 64 bit chassis, and one 6 slot PCI chassis with daughter board attached. I'm using the 7 slot version which I found on ebay for $150!!!!!), so I now have and HD 5, since I'm using all my cards via the expansion chassis. Still working flawlessly with zero issues!

Actually the extra HD cards, beyond HD 2 are kinda redundant, since the computer performs to the level of an HD 8 (at least) in RTAS mode with a buffer of 64, giving the same amount of latency as TDM plugs!

This is a substantial breakthrough because, digidesign (those people I invested $30,000 with to get the HD 5 rig), completely turned their back on their PCI-X / expansion chassis market by discontinuing support for their hardware. Also, the actually said in the release PDF for Pro Tools HD 8.0.3 that this would not work.

I guess they are lazy coders, who 1. did not recode 8.0.3, 2. do not write separate code for windows and mac, or 3. The addressing of the cards is handled by the bios, so it doesn't matter whether you use PCI or PCI e, because to the OS it looks the same.

Either way, I'm glad it works!!! It saved me another $20,000 in upgrade fees.

Posted 25 December 2009 - 04:48 PM

Noizyboy

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I'm trying to get my Pro Tools LE system to work with a setup from the lifehacker article. Snow Leopard is running great but I couldn't get a PT install to work at all (my mbox 2 wouldn't light up) until the latest 8.0.3 release. Now it installs fine, starts fine, but I get a "Could not allocate space for recording!" message when I try to record a track.

I've gone through the Digi Troubleshooting guide and searched around on their web site but no luck. I tried all this stuff for trashing preferences and digi databases then re-installed PT. In the workspace I verified that the disk I'm trying to record to is set to "R" for both modes (tho I don't have video). I'm tempted to re-install Snow Leopard but I can't think of a reason that would help.

I may revert back to Leopard for now and see if I can get it working there but it seems like I'm close to getting this working. If anyone's got ideas I'd love to hear 'em.

Hmmmmm.....Seems like the problem is related to the install. Is the install vanilla? I think vanilla with a few kexts in an extras folder is the way to go.

I'm pretty sure that the issue you're having doesn't have anything to do with normal pro tools behavior.

When you load up a session and look inside disk allocation, which volume does it say you're using? Is the volume formatted for Mac OS extended journaled? Which bus is the drive connected to? Firewire, USB, Sata, or ATA? Is the song folder on the same drive as the one you intend to record to?

Posted 29 December 2009 - 04:35 PM

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Hey, OK going to go with same kit as noizyboy.

I have a few Mac Pro cases so will see if I can do a good Hack Pro job!

I also have a few OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD so that should add some more rocket fuel to the rig! Gonna downgrade to HD2 as a few peeps now have rightly pointed out the RTAS power will be so high the cards will not really be running too much on the TDM plugs side.

Should have some more info tomorrow afternoon when kit shows up.......

Posted 29 December 2009 - 05:22 PM

Noizyboy

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Hey, OK going to go with same kit as noizyboy.

I have a few Mac Pro cases so will see if I can do a good Hack Pro job!

I also have a few OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD so that should add some more rocket fuel to the rig! Gonna downgrade to HD2 as a few peeps now have rightly pointed out the RTAS power will be so high the cards will not really be running too much on the TDM plugs side.

Should have some more info tomorrow afternoon when kit shows up.......

PS noizyboy, is the EDIMAX wifi working OK?

Do you have any accel cards in your rig. I ask because the only downside to using RTAS is the extra voice usage within TDM. If you're planing on doing large mixes you're going to need accel's 192 voice count.

Posted 29 December 2009 - 06:02 PM

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Do you have any accel cards in your rig. I ask because the only downside to using RTAS is the extra voice usage within TDM. If you're planing on doing large mixes you're going to need accel's 192 voice count.

Yes I currently have an Accel HD3, so will sell one of the Accel cards (pays for the new computer!!!)

Just ordered everything so will crack on tomorrow.

I will try and use one of the Mac Graphics cards, with the install method you used above what graphic drivers are included?

Posted 30 December 2009 - 03:25 PM

gein

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Hi I'm planning to build a hackintosh with a HD2 accel, but first I want to know if the "play video trough firewire" option is working. I need that because i do sounddesign for films. It's working on an mac but it's not available in the windows versions of Protools.
Thanks Hein

Posted 31 December 2009 - 07:34 AM

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Hi I'm planning to build a hackintosh with a HD2 accel, but first I want to know if the "play video trough firewire" option is working. I need that because i do sounddesign for films. It's working on an mac but it's not available in the windows versions of Protools.Thanks Hein

Posted 02 January 2010 - 01:46 PM

Yes I currently have an Accel HD3, so will sell one of the Accel cards (pays for the new computer!!!)

Just ordered everything so will crack on tomorrow.

I will try and use one of the Mac Graphics cards, with the install method you used above what graphic drivers are included?

cheers

Best way to find your graphics card is through research on the forums or the Snow Leopard compatibility WIKI. Geforce 9400 GT seem to be doing pretty well. That's what I'm using.

I actually installed mine using a custom graphics string I made using OSx86 tools.

Hi I'm planning to build a hackintosh with a HD2 accel, but first I want to know if the "play video trough firewire" option is working. I need that because i do sounddesign for films. It's working on an mac but it's not available in the windows versions of Protools.Thanks Hein

Hey, I've never done this before, but I can tell you that my firewire is working perfectly in all way, besides fire wire target disk mode (which will not work on any hackintosh machine, and will leave your mobo smoldering).

What device does this method play to? What's on the end of the firewire cable?

You've answered your own question.

Well.....not necessarily. Most windows machine do not have firewire ports, so this could be the reason for it's omission on the windows version of Pro Tools.

Can you verify this as working in Snow Leopard? Does the peripheral connect to firewire cable draw power from the firewire bus? If the first is true, and the second isn't, I think you have pretty good chance of it working if you use an EX58 mobo.

Posted 02 January 2010 - 09:54 PM

fatwurlitzertone

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Hey Guys-

I am also following Noizyboy's lead in attempting to avoid the huge upgrade costs imposed by both Apple and Digi to get a working Pro Tools system happening. Thanks to Noizyboy for the support so far, I'm just awaiting the arrival of a new credit card to push go on this project.

I am quite a novice when it comes to this level of modification, but my machine was recently stolen from my apartment and now I am forced to get back in the game.

I'm working in a studio in Manhattan where I have become very familiar with Pro Tools HD and am excited about the prospect of bringing it to my own rig via the "outdated" PCI cards that are floating around these days.

Posted 03 January 2010 - 11:47 PM

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System built (see sig) working apart from sound & sleep

Seems to all be working like a treat, one strange thing - when I start the system up and open PT for the 1st time it takes about 30-40 secs to open, close and reopen takes about 5 secs? (just cannot remember it doing that before!)

Posted 05 January 2010 - 03:58 PM

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Hello:

I'm a recovering 'EFiX-er', just switched over to a Chameleon solution. I had been using an HD3 Accel PCI system (use only one 192 box) on 10.5.8 with EFiX (on older firmware) and that was working great. I just built up the system with a fresh install of 10.6.2 Snow Leopard and PT HD 8.0.3 (the newest downloadable full installer that appeared in my account today). Note, the problems I'm about to describe also happen with this Chameleon setup running the same 10.5.8 setup that works with EFiX.

Installation went smoothly, and it all looked good. However, it did not sound good!

I imported some stereo audio at 48k, then later 44.1, and when I push play it starts playing but AUDIBLY loops about 2 seconds of the audio from where I played, with static. VISIBLY, Pro Tools looked to be playing along fine. (insertion was moving, the metering was following the sound I was hearing). The length of the loop is related to the disk buffer size, with larger buffer giving a longer loop.

Also, I was getting static (like digital clock problems) on some playing tracks. I managed to figure out that this happens only on tracks set to voices on A. So, if I put my playback engine to 192 voices and explicitly set a stereo track to play on any voices higher than A, let's say B 1-2, there is no static (still loops though!).

Also, attempting to send system sound (iTunes) out of the Digi Core Audio (by selecting in System Prefs, Sound, Output, Digidesign HD) does not work at all.

So, I'm a bit sad! But, not without hope. Could it be something to do with CPU identification possibly?

A further bit of info is that another Pro Tools / EFiX user contacted me previously stating that when he did an EFiX firmware update that he also had this static and looping problem. So, if EFiX steals from you guys, then I guess I need to go back to an older solution -- but of course for the good of the project we need to figure this out!

Posted 05 January 2010 - 10:12 PM

Noizyboy

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System built (see sig) working apart from sound & sleep

Seems to all be working like a treat, one strange thing - when I start the system up and open PT for the 1st time it takes about 30-40 secs to open, close and reopen takes about 5 secs? (just cannot remember it doing that before!)

Will report back once I get some third party plugs loaded up

Okay, just checked and for sound I'm using VoodooHDA.kext. A quick search on here should find you a link to the latest version.

For sleep, as I said, you should use the ex58 mobo script to install sleep enabler. This script uses PC EFI 10.3 though, unless they updated since I last downloaded.

Regarding the start up time, pro tools always takes longer the first time you launch it, for two reasons;

1. Because it scans for plugins on the first launch.

2. Because, unless you did something memory intensive since the last launch, it's loading from memory. Also, if you have DSP caching switched on, this will make most subsequent session loads after the initial one, faster. I try to stay away from DSP caching though, as it messes with certain plugins, and also causes problems with ADC (Auto delay compensation).

Are you switching between different installs in between launching or making changes to your plugin folder? This will make Pro tools do a complete plugin scan, which is slower.

I clock the load time at 30 secs for a fresh start from login, and 25 secs from re-loading after immediately quitting pro tools. Either way, if you have many plugins, as I do, this is ridiculously fast! At least twice as fast as my Quad G5.

I think once you install your third party plugs, you load and re-load times will be consistently around 25 secs.

Posted 05 January 2010 - 10:57 PM

Noizyboy

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Hello:

I'm a recovering 'EFiX-er', just switched over to a Chameleon solution. I had been using an HD3 Accel PCI system (use only one 192 box) on 10.5.8 with EFiX (on older firmware) and that was working great. I just built up the system with a fresh install of 10.6.2 Snow Leopard and PT HD 8.0.3 (the newest downloadable full installer that appeared in my account today). Note, the problems I'm about to describe also happen with this Chameleon setup running the same 10.5.8 setup that works with EFiX.

Installation went smoothly, and it all looked good. However, it did not sound good!

I imported some stereo audio at 48k, then later 44.1, and when I push play it starts playing but AUDIBLY loops about 2 seconds of the audio from where I played, with static. VISIBLY, Pro Tools looked to be playing along fine. (insertion was moving, the metering was following the sound I was hearing). The length of the loop is related to the disk buffer size, with larger buffer giving a longer loop.

Also, I was getting static (like digital clock problems) on some playing tracks. I managed to figure out that this happens only on tracks set to voices on A. So, if I put my playback engine to 192 voices and explicitly set a stereo track to play on any voices higher than A, let's say B 1-2, there is no static (still loops though!).

Also, attempting to send system sound (iTunes) out of the Digi Core Audio (by selecting in System Prefs, Sound, Output, Digidesign HD) does not work at all.

So, I'm a bit sad! But, not without hope. Could it be something to do with CPU identification possibly?

A further bit of info is that another Pro Tools / EFiX user contacted me previously stating that when he did an EFiX firmware update that he also had this static and looping problem. So, if EFiX steals from you guys, then I guess I need to go back to an older solution -- but of course for the good of the project we need to figure this out!

System specs in signature. Thanks for any help!!

Okay, so just to be clear. You have installed OS X 10.6.2 using Chameleon 2 RC4, and not EFiX?

Did you use a standard 10.6 install, and then use software update to get to 10.6.2? (you would have to update sleepEnabler before rebooting otherwise you'd get a KP on restart)

Did you update your SleepEnabler.kext to the 10.6.2 compatible version?

And, one more time, is your EFix dongle not plugged into your USB and on the other side of the room, under the couch?

As far as Protools, of course you have trashed preferences, rebuilt databases, etc, right?

This is happening in a completely fresh session?

Where are your files playing from? Which drive and bus are they on.

Your problems sounds like it's either disk or memory related. Pro tools will still be visually okay in such an instance because it is reading the waveform and meter info from wave cache.

The only time I have ever seen this type of issue, is right before Pro tools is about to crash, but you say your system will play like this and then continue to function logically?

Check this thread. I know this for the EX58 UDR3 Mobo, but installation should be the same, except for a couple of kexts.

I would erase the system drive and do a completely fresh 10.6 install using PC EFI 10.3 (I haven't tested 10.5 yet).

Test this setup with your system and just the core card. Should be cool.

Add a card at a time and continue to test.

Success, then......

As an option update to 10.6.2.

I only updated because I wanted to use the new Apple bluetooth magic mouse, which require 10.6.1 or later.

Hello:

I'm a recovering 'EFiX-er', just switched over to a Chameleon solution. I had been using an HD3 Accel PCI system (use only one 192 box) on 10.5.8 with EFiX (on older firmware) and that was working great. I just built up the system with a fresh install of 10.6.2 Snow Leopard and PT HD 8.0.3 (the newest downloadable full installer that appeared in my account today). Note, the problems I'm about to describe also happen with this Chameleon setup running the same 10.5.8 setup that works with EFiX.

Installation went smoothly, and it all looked good. However, it did not sound good!

I imported some stereo audio at 48k, then later 44.1, and when I push play it starts playing but AUDIBLY loops about 2 seconds of the audio from where I played, with static. VISIBLY, Pro Tools looked to be playing along fine. (insertion was moving, the metering was following the sound I was hearing). The length of the loop is related to the disk buffer size, with larger buffer giving a longer loop.

Also, I was getting static (like digital clock problems) on some playing tracks. I managed to figure out that this happens only on tracks set to voices on A. So, if I put my playback engine to 192 voices and explicitly set a stereo track to play on any voices higher than A, let's say B 1-2, there is no static (still loops though!).

Also, attempting to send system sound (iTunes) out of the Digi Core Audio (by selecting in System Prefs, Sound, Output, Digidesign HD) does not work at all.

So, I'm a bit sad! But, not without hope. Could it be something to do with CPU identification possibly?

A further bit of info is that another Pro Tools / EFiX user contacted me previously stating that when he did an EFiX firmware update that he also had this static and looping problem. So, if EFiX steals from you guys, then I guess I need to go back to an older solution -- but of course for the good of the project we need to figure this out!

System specs in signature. Thanks for any help!!

Oh, I also just realized that PC EFI 10.3, as used in the X58 Mobo Script, uses Chameleon 2, and not the latest 2 RC4 update that is in PC EFI 10.5 (I believe) so this could be your problem?